I.INTRODUCTION • RR 1:6-9

A.The Success Industry

3.Some success &
motivational speakers have become multi-millionaires thru the fees the charge.

4.They claim if you pu
their ideas into practice, “You too can succeed!!”

5.Dress for Success –
Think & Grow Rich – Success Is A Choice.

6.The slogans are
many & clever.

7.But it seems the
only ones who are attaining the promised success are the ones pulling down the
huge speaking fees & writing the books.

B.True Success

1.In our study today,
we discover the trueway to real success.

2.This isn’t success
as the world defines it but as the Creator does.

3.The One Who made us,
did so for a reason. And success is finding & fulfilling that reason.

4.Anything else is a
distraction from the real calling & purpose of our lives.

5.So, because we’re
going to be holding the definitive Success Seminar here today – we have to ask you
to get out your checkbooks & credit cards and ante up the $750 seminar fee.
J

II.TEXT

A.Set the Scene

1.Moses is gone &
Joshua is now the leader of Israel.

2.In just a short
time, he’ll send out the call for Israel to pack up & move into
the Promised Land.

3.The reality
of the scope of lies ahead presses in on him like a crushing weight.

B.Vs. 1-6

1After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun,
Moses’ assistant, saying: 2“Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore,
arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am
giving to them—the children of Israel.
3Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given
you, as I said to Moses. 4From the wilderness and this Lebanon as
far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and
to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. 5No
man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I
was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake
you. 6Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall
divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

1.These words give us
an insight into what Joshua was thinking about & feeling at this moment;

a.he
overwhelmed, weak, & timid.

b.God
would not have told Joshua to be strong & of good courage if he already
was.

2.It’s not hard to
understand why Joshua would have been feeling a tad fearful.

a.He
was one of the original 12 spies who’d scouted out the Promised Land 40 years
before.

b.So
when God described these boundaries in vs. 3 &4 he knew this was a vast
territory he was being called to conquer.

c.And
in it were fierce enemies who lived in well equipped fortress-cities.

d.But
it wasn’t the Canaanites that posed the biggest challenge to Joshua; it was
the people Joshua was supposed to lead INTOCanaan that were the problem.

e.40
years before Joshua & his fellows spy & friend, Caleb, had tried to
convince Israel God would give them the land then.

f.But
they had balked & refused to go up and take possession
of that which God was giving them.

g.As
judgment, they had to wander in the wilderness for the next 38 years until the
entire generation of adults died off – all except Joshua & Caleb.

h.Here
they are, 40 years later & it’s “Take 2.”As the crucial moment comes & once again
it’s time for Israel
to enter the Promise,

Joshua wonders; will they obey or balk?

3.In the midst of
Joshua’s uncertainty, God comes to him with a word of encouragement.

a.And
I mean that literally; God wants to put courageIN Joshua
when He says in v. 6 . . .

Be strong and of good courage, for to this people YOUshall
divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

b.The
Lord promised Joshua his leadership of the nation would succeed; the people
would follow.

C.Vs. 7-9

7Only be strong and very courageous, that you may
observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do
not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper
wherever you go.

1.God repeated the
command to be strong and filled with courage.

2.But notice where
God wanted Joshua to direct his strength and courage.

a.It
wasn’t in warfare or battle with the Canaanites as we might expect.

b.It
was in holding forth the priority that he & those he lead be a People of
the Word of God.

c.Friends,
we need to understand that Israel’s
real
battle in conquering Canaan was never
about defeating the Canaanites, Hittites, & Amorites.

d.It
was about conquering their own unbelief & stubbornness
of heart that resisted God & refused to obey His Word.

e.This
is why God directed Joshua’s strength & courage toward his leadership of
the Nation in the things of God,

f.Because
Israel’s success in conquering Canaan was
directly proportional to her obedience to the Lord!

g.It
was never about swinging a metal sword against Canaanites –

h.It
was about using the Sword of the Spirit against the inner enemy of doubt.

3.God showed them in
their very first victory in Canaan, at Jericho, that their conquest of the land was
not going to come primarily through conventional warfare.

4.No – it was
directly linked to one thing – obedience to Him, even when that
obedience had no seeming connection to victory over their enemies.

a.That’s
what the whole marching around Jericho
for 7 days was meant to teach the people of God.

b.That
to defeat the enemy ‘out there,’ we must first defeat the unbelief within
& come to the place of total dependence on God.

5.So He told Joshua
that the key to Israel’s
conquest of the land was through whole-hearted obedience to the Word of God.

6.He must be strong &
courageous in His leadership of the nation in the things of God – calling them
to obedience.

D.The Promise

1.It’s important as
we look at this incredible promise in v. 8 that we keep it in it’s context.

2.God is speaking to
Joshua in his role as leader of Israel
in their conquest of Canaan.

3.And really, what
God is doing here is simply restating the terms of the covenant
He’d made with Israel.

a.as
we have repeatedly seen, Israel’s
side of the covenant was to obey the Law of God,

b.God’s
side was to bless them.

4.That is being repeated
here: If Joshua will abide in the Word & Law of God, using its guidance in
all his decisions, then blessing will follow.

5.While that is the
primary context & meaning of the promise God makes in v. 8, it’s a principle
that applies to all of God’s people in every age.

6.If we would know true
success,

a.If
we want to come to the end of our lives with the satisfaction we’ve succeeded
in the purpose for which we were created,

b.Then
we must look to the Word of God & make it the basis for our living.

E.The Word

1.David said it well
-- when in Psalm 119:105 he wrote –

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my
path.

a.It’s
in God’s Word we find the wisdom to live because as the Creator He’s revealed
the truths that govern the universe.

b.Those
who reject God’s Word have to live by their own wit, and that is a dim bulb
indeed.

2.Actually, every verse of Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the
Bible, is David’s exaltation of the Word of God.

3.In v. 9 he says

How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed
according to Your word.

a.What
he means by a ‘clean way’ is a straight, smooth, safe path through life.

b.David
pictures a young person who’s moving out from under his/her parents’ authority
into their own life as an adult.

c.He’s
deciding what star he’s going to steer his life by, what frame of reference
she’ll use in making her daily choices.

d.The right path, the life that works, is the one whose boundary
markers are the Words of God.

4.In Proverbs 3:5-6, the Teacher of Wisdom shows where
wisdom lies.

5Trust in the Lord
with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;6In
all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

5.Where do we find the Lord’s counsel?In His Word.

6.Would you agree
that the Name of God is holy & exalted?

a.So
sacred, so special is the Name of God the Jews did not utter it out loud.

b.Only
once a year on the Day of Atonement when the high priest entered into the Holy
of holies was God’s name spoken.

c.When
reading the Scripture, whenever they came to the Name of God, they would
reverently bow their heads & simply say, “Ha shem; the Name.”

d.To
this day, Orthodox Jews refer to God as ‘Ha Shem’ & when writing the word
‘G-o-d’ they replace the ‘o’ with an underscore [G_d] so that someone reading
what they’ve written won’t forget and utter even the generic word for “God.”

e.Check
it out for yourself. Visit any Orthodox Jewish website and you’ll see it
spelled “G_d”.

f.that’s
how sacred & special the Name of God is to the Jews.

7.Bearing this in
mind, listen to Psalm 138:2

You have magnified Your word aboveALL Your name.

a.I
do not possess any words that can do justice to explaining this, so I won’t
try.

b.Let me just repeat it and pray it sinks in as the Spirit presses it
home for you.

F.Faith & Fear

1.My message today is
a simple one. Just as Joshua’s success was found in abiding in God’s Word, so
is ours.

2.Notice that in v.
9, for a 3rd time God exhorts Joshua to be strong & courageous.

3.His courage &
strength were to be found by abiding in God’s Word as vs. 7 & 8 make clear.

4.In himself, Joshua
was prone to fear & discouragement. But in the Word was his strength &
courage.

5.There is only one
way to conquer fear – through faith.

6.And as Romans 10:17 says, faith comes by abiding in God’s
Word.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God.

7.Look again at v. 8.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but
you shall meditate in it day and night,

a.Note
the words ‘mouth’ & ‘meditate.’

b.Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing.

c.God
told Joshua to keep the word in his mouth.

d.The
word meditate here means to “mutter.”

8.When you’re reading
or praying, does you mind ever wander?

9.We find here a
great way to stay focused & draw the maximum benefit from our time in the
Word –

a.read
it out loud!

b.mutter
it as you go through your day.

c.now,
someone might see you muttering and say, “Hey, what’s a mutter with you?”Just smile and say everything’s fine.

10.One of the
areas many Christians struggle with is in the realm of their imagination.

a.their
minds wander during the day or night.They day-dream or fantasize.

b.And
these imaginations aren’t always the best place for their minds to be dwelling.

c.Proverbs 23:7 says that as we think in our hearts,
so we are.

d.One
of the best ways to take our thoughts captive to Christ is to quietly talk to
ourselves about the Lord – mulling over the counsel we’ve read out loud in our
morning devotions.

11.That’s what God
told Joshua to do here – to speak to his fears, slaying them witht eh Word of
God.

III.CONCLUSION

A.Victory!

1.The key to Israel’s victory in Canaan
lay not in overcoming the Canaanites.

2.Israel’s real
battle was internal; she had to conquer her own fears which were driven by
her doubts about God.

3.The key to winning that battle was to abide in His
Word.

4.In the same way, as
we stand now in a new year, with new challenges before us & new spiritual
territory the Lord wants us to lay claim to,

5.The key to victory
is not in overcoming the problems, obstacles, & foes out there,

6.But conquering our
own inner doubt & unbelief.

7.Faith defeats fear.

B.Simple

1.My message this
morning is a simple one; in fact, it’s one we give often here at CC.

2.Be a man or woman
of the Word.

3.Read it. Study it.
Live it. Do it.

4.Many people make
New Year’s resolutions.

a.If
you haven’t settled on one, may I suggest one?

b.Read
through the Bible this year.

c.And
every time you pick it up, begin with a prayer that says, “Lord Jesus, use Your
Word now to defeat my fears, to answer my doubts, & to make me strong &
courageous to press in to all You have for me.”